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Sue Dorfman Photographs of Democracy in Action
Lancaster, Pennsylvania | November 8, 2022
An election volunteer double-counts the number of absentee ballots in her stack before opening the envelopes.
Sumter, South Carolina | November 3, 2022
Dr. Brenda Williams casts her ballot during early voting. Williams and her husband, Dr. Joseph Williams, registered hundreds of their patients as new voters.
Benton Harbor, Michigan | August 4, 2022
A freshly painted mural by Jesse Kassel reminds residents that “Your Vote Matters.”
Lancaster, Pennsylvania | November 8
An election volunteer removes absentee ballots from their inner envelopes, checks that there are no stray marks or more than one circle filled in for each candidate field, and then flattens the ballots for processing.
Bedford, New Hampshire | September 13, 2022
Voters line up on primary day in the Granite State. New Hampshire does not have early voting, but the state does have same-day voter registration. Moreover, primary voters in New Hampshire can change their party affiliation for that day — and then change it back after casting their ballot.
Lawrenceville, Georgia | November 2, 2022
Voters fill the booths at the early voting site located in Gwinnett County’s Voter Registrations & Elections Beauty P. Baldwin Building.
Charlotte, North Carolina | November 3, 2022
Poll worker Margaret Davis explains the importance of voting to first-time voters Andre Caleca and Caroline Ku while Andre’s father, Paul Caleca, looks on.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin | August 9, 2022
In a church classroom turned polling site, an election official writes out the date of the upcoming general election on a blackboard.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | May 17, 2022
Kendall Alexander places her absentee ballot in a drop box on Pennsylvania’s primary day.
Little Rock, Arkansas | October 24, 2022
On the first day of early voting in 2022, a few dozen people were waiting in line for the doors to open at 8:00 a.m. Alvin Merriweather, who arrived early to be first in line, holds his voter ID and phone in his hand. When he started voting, Merriweather was required to pay a poll tax of $1.00. Arkansas, unlike other states, did not require that voters pass a literacy test, nor did the state explicitly restrict Blacks from voting. Arkansas repealed the poll tax requirement in 1964, the same year that saw passage of the 24th Amendment, which prohibited the use of the poll tax in congressional and presidential elections. Merriweather has not missed an election since casting his first ballot.
Cincinnati, Ohio | October 21, 2022
Starting the day after voter registration ends, Ohio voters can cast their early in-person ballots at their county board of elections. Hamilton County, where Cincinnati is located, has close to 600,000 registered voters. In 2020, at the height of the COVID pandemic, the county’s Board of Elections moved early voting to a cavernous hall that allowed for better social distancing. As of 2022, that space is now the county’s permanent location for early voting. (Gone are the clear acrylic screens that separated voters from election workers when COVID was raging two years before.) Voter check-in stations line the edges of the hall, with dozens of poll workers available to sign in voters. At this first stop, the voter’s ID is scanned and the information is verified in an electronic poll book. Voters then receive a paper ballot, which they mark up at one of the numerous polling booths (standing or seated). Ballot scanners line a back wall and election workers stand by, ready to provide assistance and answer questions. Early voting for the 2022 midterms exceeded that of 2018 in Hamilton County, with voters continuously entering the hall.
Duluth, Georgia | December 1, 2022
This is the second time that Korean-born Chang Sup Jung has voted in an election. The first time, Kay Kang, a volunteer with Asian Americans Advancing Justice, came with him to translate his ballot. Believing that as an American citizen, his vote mattered, he contacted Kang again and asked her to accompany him to the polls for the Georgia Senate runoff. Here, Kang explains how to put his paper ballot into the ballot scanner.
Jackson, Mississippi | October 28, 2022
Mississippi does not have an official early voting period. However, the state does allow early in-person voting for a range of reasons, including for voters who are over the age of 65. Absentee voting by mail has more restrictions. Here, deputy clerk Devin Black explains the early voting process to Carol Blackmon, who went to the Hinds County circuit clerk office to cast her age-eligible early vote. Her first step: fill out the “Official Application for Absentee Elector’s Ballot.” Mississippi requires a witness’s signature for absentee voting applications and submissions, and the deputy clerk provided that service for Blackmon.
Germantown, Maryland | July 21, 2022
The canvassing — or counting — of mail-in ballots began two days after Maryland’s Democratic and Republican gubernatorial primaries, which were held on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. The Montgomery County Board of Elections has a Student Election Worker Program that provides high school students with the opportunity to serve as election workers. Here, a student participant in the program partners with a seasoned election worker as they process envelopes in batches of 50. The team double-counts the number of envelopes, checks each outer envelope for a signature and the date it was received, removes each ballot from its envelope, and checks that the ballot can be tabulated. When the process is complete, the team will count and bundle the envelopes and put the ballots in a separate ballot folder.
Washington, District of Columbia | June 25, 2022
On a hot summer day, thousands of people from the diverse Asian diaspora along with multicultural partners gathered on the National Mall in the nation’s capital for the Asian American Unity March. Prompted by the rise of attacks on the Asian community, the rally sought to advance socioeconomic and cultural equity, racial justice, and solidarity. Speakers emphasized the need to stand together and to fight for change — to continue the push for full participation in democracy, including access to voting, citizenship, and civic power for immigrants and communities of color. The message: Go vote for those who can’t.
